Chapter 407
The Returning Shadow Killing Array and Spotting
Chapter 407 The Returning Shadow Killing Array and Spotting
March 7, deep in the valley of Pinglu.
Guan Tong held the wordless book in her hand, turning the page to the sixth page.
He closed his eyes for a moment to prepare.
When he opened his eyes, a large amount of mental energy flowed into the pages of the book, and an endless shadow quickly spread out from his feet, enveloping everything around him.
This is his "Shadow Domain," which, like his other abilities, was enhanced after he entered the second stage of his ascension.
The most direct manifestation of this is that the basic characteristics such as the speed, range, and cost of domain expansion have all been improved.
But this reinforcement is far from meeting his psychological expectations.
Once the shadow domain closed, Guan Tong had a thought, and a large number of eye-shaped shadow creations appeared.
This was an ability he developed when he first activated the Shadow Domain in order to kill everyone who attacked him and Shi Jingyi. Its effect was to monitor every corner within the Shadow Domain and share the view with him.
These eyes now emit a faint red glow, seemingly different from before.
This wasn't the first time Guan Tong had developed the Shadow Domain ability; he had developed it twice before.
The first was to allow the Shadow Domain to slowly absorb the mental energy of enemies trapped within it; the second was to develop a compressed small-space attack.
Now, Guan Tong combines these "surveillance eyes" with "absorbing mental energy" to accelerate the absorption of the enemy's mental energy through eye gaze.
This idea was inspired by one of his former enemies, namely Jiang Lanying's grandson Jiang Ming, who possessed the ability to absorb/release mental energy through his eyes.
In the past few days, Guan Tong has modified the Shadow Domain to have similar capabilities, referencing Jiang Ming's method of absorbing mental energy.
In this way, the next time an enemy is trapped inside, their mental energy will be absorbed more quickly simply by making eye contact with those eyes.
If you deliberately avoid those eyes, your view will be obstructed. It's a case of being stubborn and hitting both ends; no matter which you choose, you'll be at a disadvantage.
In this way, Guan Tong might not even need to fight himself. As long as he maintains the Shadow Domain, the enemy will be defeated without a fight because their mental energy will be quickly drained.
And this wasn't the only development he'd done in the past few days.
"return."
Guan Tong gave an order, and the vast shadow domain quickly retracted from all directions, centered on his right palm.
Countless sharp shadows, accompanied by the crashing sound of falling trees, sliced through everything in their path.
It's like an umbrella assembled from blades; when the umbrella is opened and closed, everything under the fan will be cut by those blades.
It's like casting out a fishing net full of barbs. The fish might not get hurt when it's cast, but when the net is pulled back, they'll be scratched all over by the dense barbs.
This is the effect Guan Tong wanted.
The completely contracted shadow domain formed a small space in his palm, ready to be used for attack at any time.
Guan Tong looked up at everything around her.
A large area of forest that was previously covered by the Shadow Domain has been reduced to pieces of wood scattered on the ground.
Even some solid rocks were cut open and turned into stone flakes.
This means that if there are enemies in the Shadow Domain, no matter how many there are, their fate will be no different from these trees and stones... they will all be cut into countless pieces.
He named this newly mastered domain ability "Return Shadow Killing Array," which corresponds to the "Thorn Shadow Killing Array" that he used to kill multiple enemies.
As for the small-space form...
Guan Tong looked at the dark vortex in his right hand, stopped injecting mental energy, and it immediately returned to nothingness.
"If I had more time to study it, I might be able to enhance it and learn more about Condensation and Mind Martial Arts, but... time waits for no one."
Tomorrow, the 8th, is the meeting day that Shi Jingyi and Lu Cheng agreed to meet. Today is the 7th, and it is already noon.
As he had told Shi Jingyi beforehand, it was time for him to scout out the meeting place.
However, he has improved considerably in the past few days, and it seems sufficient for now. "The location is the stadium on Xueyuan Road South Street..."
Guan Tong was ready to set off.
……
Xueyuan Road was not originally called Xueyuan Road. It was only after the academy moved from Yong'an, the capital, that the main road where it is located was renamed Xueyuan Road.
Besides the college, this road also includes off-campus faculty and staff dormitories, several shelters, a large storage warehouse, a stadium, and a branch of the Emergency Management Bureau.
The faculty and staff dormitory area is more accurately described as a high-end dormitory area. Unlike the dormitory area, which consists mainly of large residential buildings with yards, the dormitory area outside the college is different.
As the main lecturer, Shi Jingyi has her own independent courtyard. This was not requested by her, but applied for by the college on her behalf. The reason given was that as a main lecturer, she has a lot of classes and it takes a lot of energy, so she should have better accommodation.
In addition, when Yelena was in the academy, she and Skochin also lived here, in a separate courtyard.
This preferential treatment can be seen as a sign of the North Star leadership's optimism, or even an investment. As a result, the State of Sisya, which now holds the position of Governor of Sisya and is under the control of Yelena, has recently been frequently engaging in close cooperation with North Star in many areas.
It's worth noting that Sisia used to prefer cooperating with the Soro Empire, but this shift is now being led by Yelena. The reasons for this shift might include gratitude for the support from the North Star authorities, or perhaps an unclear relationship with Guan Tong.
Regardless, Beixing believed that the investment had paid off, so he paid more attention to the children of other high-ranking members of the consortium within the academy.
But Guan Tong didn't care about any of that; he had already manipulated a shadow to arrive at the stadium.
This is a large indoor stadium, one of the major public welfare projects built in Pinglu City before the post-apocalyptic era, with the goal of providing citizens with a large indoor venue for free exercise.
After the post-apocalyptic era, this stadium served as a gathering place for a long period of time.
It can be said that it has provided shelter for tens of thousands of Pinglu citizens through multiple rules.
Although the stadium was sturdy and large, it was not a dedicated shelter. Therefore, after the construction of numerous shelters, the people who had originally lived here were all moved into the shelters, and almost no one came here anymore.
Especially later, during the "Extraterrestrial Parasite" rule, this stadium was requisitioned to centrally house "practitioners," which led to even fewer normal people wanting to come after the rule ended—even though the authorities have repeatedly denied it, many people still believe that such a containment facility may contain alien spores, so they are unwilling to approach it.
“Lu Cheng chose to meet Shi Jingyi here. At first glance, it’s not far from the academy, and it’s even on the same street… but it’s a closed place after all, and a closed place that no one wants to come to.”
Guan Tong wouldn't let her guard down just because the location was close to the academy—before the post-apocalyptic era, some fake banks would deliberately open next to real banks, aiming to exploit people's mentality to swindle money.
"We'll meet tomorrow morning. If we're going to set up an ambush, there should be people inside now... Once Scarlet Terra appears at night, it will become extremely dangerous to be outdoors."
Guan Tong manipulated the shadow to enter the stadium and searched it carefully, leaving no corner unchecked.
However, after searching inside and out, and even exploring deep underground, he didn't find a single person.
Did I misjudge the situation? Did Lu Cheng really want to ask for help?
Or does Lu Cheng believe he can defeat Shi Jingyi on his own without any help?
The latter is undoubtedly unlikely.
Even if Lu Cheng didn't know Shi Jingyi's true strength, based solely on his experience attending classes at the academy, he could clearly perceive the gap between himself and the lecturer.
Guan Tong suddenly frowned, an idea popping into her head.
"Could it be that they're going to use... a teleportation device?"
He didn't think that way at first because teleportation items became increasingly expensive over time, almost unaffordable for individual ascendants; only official entities and large organizations could afford them.
However, after the Suzuki incident, he investigated the replacement of surveillance footage and suspected that the mastermind had used this device to bypass the corridor surveillance at the rehabilitation center.
Now he felt that if Lu Cheng was hostile, he might also use this method to gather helpers in a very short time.
It's just unclear how many people he has if he has helpers, what kind of people they are, and why he would go to such lengths to deal with Shi Jingyi, a college lecturer.
"...Whether I guess right or wrong, I have to prepare in advance."
Guan Tong has already made plans; tomorrow morning he will deploy a large number of shadows around the stadium.
If Shi Jingyi senses hostility from Lu Cheng, even if he can resolve the crisis himself, he will still step in to grab the kid and find out what exactly happened.
(End of this chapter)